Double Jeopardy by Michael Morris

“Double Jeopardy” begins with the discovery of an alien ship buried deep beneath the earth for thousands of years. Some unknown, catastrophic disaster led to it’s crash landing sometime during the last ice age. But when Lynnette and her friends accidentally activate the ship and send it spinning out of control through time and space, the details of the vessel’s history become the least of their worries. For the ship is a trans-dimensional time and space machine, capable of not only travelling through space and time, but also crossing the boundaries between alternate realities.

In this first adventure the group of children and teenagers find themselves in a world populated by elves, orcs and evil sorcerers as they struggle to return a kidnapped elven princess to her kingdom. But more serious problems arise when it is discovered that Lynnette is an exact double of the princess. With Lynnette in the hands of the evil dark elf Lord Salvador, and her friends under suspicion of having abducted and brainwashed the princess, will the humans be able to return to their own time and place?

This is the first part of a new science- fiction horror series, with elements of Doctor Who, Sliders, Event Horizon and Alien. Michael is currently working on the second book in the series, which will touch on some of the origins of the ship and how it arrived on Earth. Red Balloons also looks at the aftermath of a nuclear war, following a disastrous High School Fun Day on a world that has limited military technology.